A JOURNEY IN MOROCCO 
SALLY PORT OF OLD FORTRESS 
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(op 
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Photo by George . Holt 
Note storks on ramparts. 
supply of boiled water, but our Arabs 
would often drop down by the first best 
fetid puddle, little better than a hog wal- 
low. 
As toward nightfall we neared the last 
mountains separating us from Fez, how 
refreshing looked the white villages high 
up on the mountain sides, half hidden in 
olive groves! These were the villages 
of the wild Berber tribes, who make fre- 
quent raids into the plains and are al- 
most continually at war with the Sultan. 
They were the first villages we had seen 
built substantially of stone. As we gazed 
up at these bandit aeries, perched high 
among the fastnesses of the mountains, 
and later had occasion to look into the 
fearless faces of these men of the moun- 
tains, whose ancestors had once reclined 
in the gilded halls of Andalusia, we could 
begin to appreciate the seriousness of the 
proposition that confronts any Sultan of 
Morocco when compelled to deal with 
this hardy, primitive race. 
On the morning of the eighth day out 
from Tangier we began to descend the 
slopes into the great and fertile plain, “El 
Gharb” (the name of which is applied by 
the natives to the whole of Morocco). 
Through this extensive plain flows the 
largest river of the Empire, the Sebou, 
and in it are situated two of the three 
official capitals, sacred Fez and once 
splendid Mequinez. We had descended 
into the plain at about 3 o’clock in the 
afternoon, before we first caught sight 
of the minarets of the great city, and not 
till about 5 o’clock did we reach the 
massive walls. In order to enter the 
city we had to pass alcng the frowning, 
embattled walls of the Sultan’s palace 
and harem, which conceal the houses of 
the city from view and give the place the 
forbidding aspect of a city of the Middle 
Ages. As we passed under the great 
frowning arch of the Moorish city gate- 
way, in the midst of a_ wild-looking 
throng, out of which many dark glances 
were directed toward us, the full realiza- 
tion came over our party that “infidel 
dogs,” we were entering one of the sa- 
cred cities of the Moslem world. 
